Detection of a novel herpesvirus from bats in the Philippines

Abstract

Bats are natural hosts of many zoonotic viruses. Monitoring bat viruses is important to detect novel bat-borne infectious diseases. In this study, next generation sequencing techniques and conventional PCR were used to analyze intestine, lung, and blood clot samples collected from wild bats captured at three locations in Davao region, in the Philippines in 2012. Different viral genes belonging to the Retroviridae and Herpesviridae families were identified using next generation sequencing. The existence of herpesvirus in the samples was confirmed by PCR using herpesvirus consensus primers. The nucleotide sequences of the resulting PCR amplicons were 166-bp. Further phylogenetic analysis identified that the virus from which this nucleotide sequence was obtained belonged to the Gammaherpesvirinae subfamily. PCR using primers specific to the nucleotide sequence obtained revealed that the infection rate among the captured bats was 30 %. In this study, we present the partial genome of a novel gammaherpesvirus detected from wild bats. Our observations also indicate that this herpesvirus may be widely distributed in bat populations in Davao region.

Isolation of a Novel Fusogenic Orthoreovirus from Eucampsipoda africana Bat Flies in South Africa

“…Pathogens of particular public health importance are filoviruses [ 1 , 2 ], coronaviruses [ 3 , 4 ], paramyxoviruses [ 5 , 6 ] and lyssaviruses [ 7 , 8 ]. Other viruses, without a known human disease link, have also been detected recently [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Some human pathogens, such as Rift Valley fever virus, that have been detected in bats were likely a result of coincidental infection and do not constitute proof that bats play a role as reservoirs [ 12 ].…”

High prevalence and diversity of viruses of the subfamily Gammaherpesvirinae, family Herpesviridae, in fecal specimens from bats of different species in southern China

“…The prevalence of HVs of the three subfamilies in many bat species was found in previous studies to be high [7][8][9][10][11]. Eight bat species, with prevalence rates of 3.47-33.33 %, were sampled from four areas of southern China in this study.…”

“…In 2007, Wibbelt and co-workers first confirmed the presence of HVs in bats [7]. Recently, several studies have documented the high prevalence of HVs with diverse genetic characteristics in bats originating from the Philippines, Madagascar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, and Hungary [8][9][10][11][12]. In 2012, four new HVs, two betaherpesviruses and two gammaherpesviruses, were identified in bats in China, using sequence-independent PCR amplification and next-generation sequencing technology, targeting the concatenated glycoprotein B (gB) and DNA-directed DNA polymerase (DPOL) genes of HVs [13].…”

Emerging horizon for bat borne viral zoonoses

“…Detection of herpes virus in the digestive tract and anal swabs of bats suggests oral faecal route as main mode of transmission for herpes virus in bats [67]. In Philippines during 2012, 70 bats belonging to megabat species were examined and a novel Gamma herpes virus was identified from 20% of the intestine (14/70) and 10% of the lung (7/ 69) and serum samples (5/52) [43].…”